Falls Incidence Compared Between a Multibedded Ward Hospital and a 100% Single-Occupancy Room Hospital: An Uncontrolled Before-After Study

Abstract

Background: Single-occupancy patient rooms in hospitals have become popular because of the privacy they offer. A downside, however, is the lack of social control from other patients, which might increase the risk of falls and undetected delirium. Aim: To study whether the incidence of falls in single-occupancy patient rooms differs from that in multibedded patient rooms. Secondary aims were to establish differences in the context of falls and differences in delirium incidence. Methods: An uncontrolled observational before-after study was performed during 16 months before and 16 after moving to a hospital with 100% single-occupancy patient rooms. Fall data were retrieved from the hospital incident reporting system. The Delirium Observation Screening Scale (DOSS) was retrieved from the hospital electronic patient data system. Main outcomes were the number of falls per 1,000 patient days, assessed with a Poisson regression analysis, and delirium incidence in fallers. Results: The incidence of falls was not significantly different between the before period (1.39 falls/1,000 patient days) and the after period (1.38 falls/1,000 patient days; p = .924). In the after period, falls in the bathroom were significantly more frequent than in the before period, respectively, 17.2% and 9.4% ( p = .003). In both periods, one quarter of the patients who fell had been assessed for delirium. In the before period, 57/73 (78%) of those were suspected for delirium (DOSS ≥ 3) versus 37/55 (67%) in the after period ( p = .225). Conclusions: In this study, we observed no change in incidence of falls after moving to a hospital with 100% single-occupancy bed rooms.